Despite contention from various residents in the small town of Newborn, hours at their post office will be cut. Though it is still unclear when this will happen, or what the new hours for Monday through Friday will be.

The community of Newborn, as well as neighboring Mansfield, was sent surveys from the United States Postal Service, requesting assistance in deciding the fate of the post office.

Of those 1,227 that were sent out, only 320 were returned. The vast majority (86 percent) of those who answered the survey suggested that instead of closing the post office in Newborn, they instead realign the hours.

USPS Marketing Manager Nancy Barbee Ross spoke to the residents, many of them irate, some with signs protesting the closure of the post office, for more than an hour Wednesday.

The initial thought was that Saturday hours would remain the same, but Monday through Friday, the post office would open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Some residents complained that they went to work earlier than that, and their post office hours now were better, specifically the opening time of 7:30 a.m. Others were upset that their mail may not get there in time. The suggestion of adding Village Post Offices, which would be local businesses that were authorized to sell small postal items such as stamps and shipping boxes, seemed little consolation to the vast majority of those in attendance.

After Barbee Ross told residents that they needed to trust the USPS was trying to figure out the best option for Newborn, one man spoke up, saying he didn't "believe a word you say anyway."

Others complained that a transport van carrying the mail had been late before, holding up their ability to get their mail from their post office boxes. Several residents got up and left the meeting when they were told that cutting the hours down to four a day throughout the week was non-negotiable.

In the end, nothing was decided. One women suggested that neighboring Mansfield, whose hours are being cut down to six a day throughout the week - and Newborn work something out that would allow one to be open in the morning and, when it closed, for the other to open, so there would be a full day's worth of post office availability.

This met with some complaints, several residents stating that Mansfield was too far (roughly 3 miles away), to drive to on a daily basis.